Posted: Wednesday, September 10, 2014

The University of Evansville’s 2014-15 annual Creative Writing Coffee Hour Lecture series begins Thursday, September 18. All lectures in the series are free and open to the public, and will be at 4:00 p.m. in the Melvin Peterson Gallery at the University.

The speaker for the first Coffee Hour will be poet Erica Dawson. Her poetry collection, Big Eyed Afraid, won the 2006 Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize. Her second book of poetry, The Small Blades Hurt, was published in January 2014. Her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies. Dawson is an assistant professor of English and writing at the University of Tampa.

Other lectures planned for this series include:

¨October 16: Novelist Ben H. Winters, an instructor at Butler University. Winters’s latest novel, Countdown City, was an NPR Best Book of 2013 and nominee for the Philip K. Dick Award. His earlier novel, The Last Policeman, won the 2012 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. It was also named one of the Best Books of 112 by Amazon.com and Slate.

¨October 23: Catherine Tufariello, poet-in-residence at Christ College, the honors college of Valparaiso University. Tufariello is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Annunciations and Free Time. Her full-length collection, Keeping My Name, received 2006 Poets’ Prize and was a Booklist Editors Choice.

¨April 16: Margaret McMullan, professor of creative writing and the Melvin M. Peterson Endowed Chair in Literature and Writing at UE. McMullan is the author of several award-winning adult and young adult novels. She has received an NEA Fellowship in Literature, a Fulbright at the University of Pecs in Hungary, and the Eugene and Marilyn Glick National Authors Award.

¨April 17 Wahnita DeLong Reading: Bruce McPherson, founding editor and publisher of McPherson & Company, an independent literary and arts press. In 2010, he published Jaimy Gordon’s novel, Lord of Misrule. Among McPherson & Company’s forthcoming books is an anthology of essays, Every Father’s Daughter, edited by Margaret McMullan.

¨April 23 Senior Reading: UE graduating creative writing majors will read from their poetry and prose. The University’s Department of Creative Writing will also announce winners of the Virginia Grabill Writing Awards.

For more information on these events, call 812-488-2963.

Share this article: